“Reasons…don’t… mattter,” the pilot said slowly and deliberately. “Yourfeelings don’t matter. Webecame a fief, so we needed a lord. That’s Gleb. He’s wed toLuna. She’s our lady.”
He nodded attheir prisoner. “And you just made this young woman the second inline to their throne. Takeyour hands off her.”
“Who do you think’sin charge here?” Kolm yelled.
“I don’t needto think about it,” the pilot said evenly. “I knowwho’s in charge.”
Kolm stared at him forseveral seconds. He took his hand away and spat on the deck by thepilot’s feet in sullen anger.
“Go take thecontrols,” the pilot said. “Let me know when you pick up theprox-beacon on the Edged Star.”
He lowered his weaponand Kolm stalked forward, muttering curses. Kolm flopped into thepilot’s seat and deactivated the auto-fly.
The pilot turnedback to Gabriella. He used aholo-menu to release her wrists from the ceiling, though they werestill cuffed together.
She fell to thefloor, humiliated by thisshow of weakness but she’d been hit on the head and trussed up likea side of beef for the gods only knew how long. Not thatlong, she realized. Orthat guy would have bled to death.
She shudderedwith disgust as she felt a hand touchher leg but then another slid behind her shoulders and she realizedher captor was just picking her up off the decking. He sat her on theport-side bench, her cuffs linking to the seat between her legs soshe couldn’t get up and wreak any mayhem.
He sat opposite her,deactivating his weapon and holstering it. “This is nothingpersonal,” he told her in a voice devoid of any emotion. “We’rejust following orders.”
“Whose orders?” shespat. “Your orders come from Gleb and Luna. I doubt they’d haveapproved of your ‘orders’.”
“We don’twork for them.” He leaned back, crossing his arms. “Don’t worryabout it. Chances are, you’ll be handed back as part of some dealand everybody’s happy.”
“Happy?” sheexclaimed. “You killed my mother you vat-grownpiece of shit! That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t getforgiven.
“There’s no placein the galaxy you can go to avoid the consequences. My aunt didn’tstep out of a chamber like you did, you stupid bastard! She grew upwith her sister, the woman she’s known since she was born, thewoman you just killed in front of me!”
The man’sdispassionate expression faded, replaced with a look of uncertainty.
“Your bestbet,” she snarled, “is to take that pistol, kill that prick inthe cockpit and then blow your own brains out. My aunt willget her hands on you.
“She’s gonna pullyour eyes and fingernails out, one by one, and then hang you withyour own guts.”
“Shut her up, Len, orI will,” Kolm said but his voice was shaky.
“You’re goingto be first,” she yelled at Kolm. “You’re going to die in theslowest possible way I can think of!”
“Gods, Len,smack her in the mouth!” Kolm urged.
“Just shut up andfly,” Len ordered angrily.
“Shit! There’sthe beacon.” The shuttle banked. “Damn near hit the damn ship!”
A wash of light cameback through the shuttle as the passed into a hangar-bay.
“Len tobridge,” theman across from Gabriellanearly shouted. “Engage the path drive and get us out of here!”
Kusha?
North Highlands, near Unity
Terrymoved through the forest, checking on his HUD for Vikram’sposition. Still not moving?
Ifthe teen had been heading for the place where they’d found himlying on the ground, the entire family would have been racing toretrieve him. Since he was nowhere near that place, Frank had askedTerry to go find him.
Terrylooked past the HUD and his blood ran cold. He’d wandered out intoa clearing right in front of a feathered tiger.
Theterrifying beast was lying on it’s chest, front paws splayed outand its huge maw hanging open. Terry stared at it, his own mouthhanging open in shock.
Hishand, seeming to remember before his brain, drifted toward the potentfirearm at his hip.
“It’sdead,” Vikram said quietly.
Terry’shand clenched on thin air, at least a hand’s-breadth away from thepistol-grip. He crouched in alarm, both fists up in front of him.
“Holyshit, Vik! Can you not?”
“Sorry.”
“Iwas already on the edge of a brown-pants moment there.”
“Andme telling you it’s dead was somehow more scary?” Vikramasked absently, still staring at the scene in front of them.
“Yeah,well, I didn’t know you were so close…”
“Causeif My mom heard you suddenly shooting at that dead thing, She’d behaving a moment of her own.”
“Whatkilled it, anyway?” Terry edged closer.
“Careful,”Vikram warned. “Look at the ground around him.”
Terrylooked, seeing more than just the deadly looking creature. Howdid I miss all those glowing blue bulbs? “What arethose? Spores?”
“Theyhave spines,” Vikram pointed. “See? A few of them are stickinginto the tiger’s belly.”
Terryused his HUDto get a closer look. “The wound is bigger than the spine. There’ssome kind of acid present, along with a compound similar to the sapof those ‘nap-trees’.”
“Thisworld loves putting people to sleep, doesn’t it?” Vikram glancedat Terry. “I think we’re looking at a phase in the life-cycle ofthose ‘glowwhales’we first saw at the party.”
Thelarge, blue-glowing creatures that had floated over Unity during thecelebration had been seen again, from time to time, and always atnight. Nobody knew what drew them down from the mountains.
“Theydissolve into spores?” Terry nodded. “That could explain why theycome down out of the mountains. No large animals up there to feedthose things.”
“Tofeed the larvae,” Vikram said. “They’re being injected throughthose spines. The acid must be for pre-digestion, to make feedingeasier for the larvae.”
“That…is… really… nasty!” Terry shuddered.
“Andthey got a bonus,” Vikram added. “Looks like he’d caught one ofthose root-eaters and now it’s full of larvae as well.”
“Huh!”Terry shook his head. “Wouldn’t be the first large predator wholives on small animals. Now that we can lookatone of these guys up close, you can see it has a hard beak and itlooks like it’s been roughed up by nosing around in dirt.”
“Andthose claws...” Vikram pointed. “They’re scary as hell butthey’re flat, for digging.”
“Can’twait for Kent to hear about this,” Terry said, grinning. “He’sbeen shooting these feather tigers and the seedlings he’s plantingare getting eaten almost as fast as he puts them in the ground.”
“So…”Vikram rose to his feet. “You’re making sure I wasn’t sneakingoff to look for Kusha?”
“No,we knew you were over this way,” Terry told him. “We
